Casa Irlanda

I am typing this while my computer balances on the bottom side of a Martinelli's Sparkling Cider box. We have no coffee table. There are no books left on our shelves. Although those, the boxes filling our living room, and the cans of primer, are the only signs that we are moving. Our pictures are still on the walls, our bed is still covered in blankets, my clothes are still strewn all over the floor, and I still caught up on my Glee fix via the internet tonight. The reality is though, we are moving, soon.

I've been absent for a long time here at Casa Irlanda. I'd like to think it was because I've been so busy, actually physically busy, and just haven't had time to even look at a computer. The truth is I've probably spent more time surfin' the net in the last couple of months then in awhile. I am fully up to date on all the television ever. I am schooled in current fashion trends as well as Spring and Resort 2010. I know too much about other people's status'. It's just...I have been feeling on the verge of something for so long it didn't feel right to write about anything. Until today.

TODAY! My dad's birthday. The only one I've missed in a long long long time! Which is a bummer, and strange, and I hope his weekend is full of all the fun birthday things everyone deserves, and really I hope this birthdayness lasts all month, because I also believe everyone deserves that too...especially my dad.

TODAY! The day Mr. and Mrs. Ireland officially became homeowners. WHAT?!? Oh, and by Mr. and Mrs. I mean us, not the in-laws. And truthfully I don't think I've ever written or ever referred to ourselves as that...Mr. and Mrs. Ireland. Is that what home ownership does to you? It's not marriage that gives you that title it's home owning?

Point being, this has been in the works for a month and half now, which you will notice is when I stopped blogging. My mind and my life and my heart have been so preoccupied trying not to fall in love with a house we only wanted and didn't have. Even as each paper was signed, and each inspection came back positive (mostly), we couldn't say it was ours. Until today. Today we got the keys. Today I was carried over the threshold of the very real Casa Irlanda. Today I can write. And give four walls, and hardwood floors, and tacky wallpaper, to the title of this blog. There is a genuine Ireland Home now. Just over there a couple of miles. There is a view from our new front porch of the house we fell in love at. There is also our favorite thai place just a block away. And the park Rico used to love to run to. Also that middle school that tried to burn down, well, that's right across the street. We'll keep you posted on the rebuild.

This is just the first 6 hours of it all...and I'm already a ball of emotions. I'm going to miss the place we've spent the last 5 years at. The apartment where we became husband and wife. Where my brother lived. Where our friends have crashed when they really, really, needed a place to stay. There is a very old man that lives across the street and he has a very big garden and lovely smelling woodstove and I've never spoken to him. One time a 40ft cedar fell in our driveway. I nursed my Rico back to health here. I have the space memorized and can maneuver it in the dark, and I don't get too scared when Jesse's not here. We've fallen in love with our landlords parents who maintained the yard until just late this last summer when they finally couldn't do it anymore. We fell in love with our landlords. There is a trail behind our house that leads in one direction to water and in the other the best sledding hill in Bellingham. I finally just got my kitchen in order. I finally planted tomatoes this past summer. And now...we're leaving...and all of these wonderful things will come with us, and when we plant tomatoes next summer they will be in our yard, and when a tree falls down we're going to really be glad it didn't land on our roof, and when our friends and family need a place to stay it will be a little roomier and a lot closer to the bars, and there will be a point when I will be able to maneuver in the dark, without being scared to death (I hope).

And anyways, we've already got our first memory in our new home...

"Remember when we finally got the house and you were working a 24? And you had to take the ambulance to meet me there and get the keys? And remember how we discovered that funny light? And the Scooby Doo flag? And how you carried me over the threshold? That was rad."




Pop, fizzz...cheers!